USAF Oath

Mikey Weinstein:

Good grief. I get it that you don’t believe in God. That is your right. But stop trying to inflict your views on the majority of Americans who do believe in Him. And back off of trying to mess with “so help me God” in the USAF oath.

I am an Air Force veteran and I resent your trying to do this!

(name withheld)

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Dear (name withheld),

Mr. Weinstein is hard a work protecting the religious freedom of our servicemen and woman and has asked me to respond.

You’re quite wrong in leaping to the assumption that we don’t believe in God. Most of the members/supporters of the MRFF are Christian, some are from other faiths and some are non-believers. All are free to believe as they choose. What we are concerned about is recognizing the right of all to their personal belief and honoring that. That’s why the separation of church and state exists.

As you may know by now, the commanding officer of the Air Force Academy now recognizes the correctness of our position and has issued an order to correct the situation. It might also interest you to know the addition of the reference to God is relatively new, not a long-standing tradition.

Best,

Mike Farrell

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I saw this on your website: AFA cadets are no longer required to say, “so help me God” at the end of the Honor Oath. School officials said Friday the words were made optional after a complaint from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, an advocacy group. I find it incredible and sad that your group wastes your time pursuing issues like this. The majority of Americans state they are Christian. Christians, Catholics and Jews all believe in God. In the years I was in the military we had prayer, a Christian Chaplain and fortunately there was no organization I am aware of that tried to do what your group is doing. We had religious freedom!!

Lastly, you need to edit your writing! And you need to educate yourself re the Constitution and the “separation of church and state.”

(name withheld)

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Dear (name withheld),

I appreciate your attention to my writing and your attempts to improve it, but you’ll have to be a bit more specific. As regards my understanding of the Constitution, I’m satisfied with the fact that the USAFA now seems to understand the concept of separation of church and state better than you do.

It apparently doesn’t register with you that the commanding officer of the Air Force Academy looked at the concern expressed by the MRFF, examined the oath and its history and determined that we were correct. I trust you don’t think that every time someone writes a letter to the Academy they just roll over and change their practices. Or do you?

You needn’t bother to feel sad about us. We don’t consider protecting the religious freedom of the men and women of our armed forces a waste of our time; it’s the mission of our organization.

As regards the prayers you had with your chaplain, no one would deny you that right as long as it was in a private religious ceremony. If, on the other hand, you chose to foist your beliefs on everyone in your company or group or school regardless of their belief and assumed it was proper to do because “the majority” were Christians, you were being incredibly insensitive and boorish, neither of which are Christian traits as I understand them.

Sleep well.

Mike Farrell